Helmet Cover

I have been attempting to make myself a helmet cover since last year when I went to my first show in May. I made one, it was horrible, so I made another. That one was marginally better, but I didn't have enough fabric on the bottom to add elastic, so I just taped it into my helmet for the show. Since then, I have been determined to figure it out and make a good one.

I was able to borrow a store bought one to look at as an example, and I decided to start from scratch. The seams were different on the store one than the two I had tried to make last year. So I made a pattern out of tissue paper, mimicking the seam lines but making it fit my helmet. I made sure to plan ahead for elastic and left more fabric on the bottom. The elastic was the hardest part. I couldn't quite get it to bunch evenly, but it works. Once I got the cover to sit smoothly on my helmet, I moved onto the decorations. Ever since I was a kid I liked the chevron helmet cover pictures in the tack catalogs. I made the chevrons out of a satin fabric with interfacing ironed on the back to give it more structure for my machine to sew through. I really like how it turned out!

I can't wait to get all my cross country stuff on and ride! Shows and schooling will be so much fun this year!

Seriously?

I mean, seriously! Look at Jack (then known as Chester) the day I tried him for the first time compared to my lesson last Saturday.

Granted, we didn't know each other at all in that first picture. But really, he was fat, his tail was thin, and he was in an elevator bit! His eye looks so worried then, and now he's so calm and relaxed, shiny, fit, and with a better tail!

Just had to post about this because I was looking at those original pictures yesterday. He is not the same horse, and I love it!

Dressage Clinic

I rode in a dressage clinic on Saturday. It was a beautiful sunny day and I was really excited about the lesson. Jack started out really lazy because he had been enjoying the sun with his friends in the pasture. However, once I got his attention, he started to feel really light and powerful! Dave came out and took a lot of pictures, and he got some really good shots.


Now that Jack is stronger and learning how to carry himself, I want to work on some dressage tests. The beginner novice tests are so short and the movements come so fast that it was easy to be tense last year trying to get everything in. Practicing both BN tests and the USDF Training level tests will hopefully keep Jack from memorizing the tests we will do in shows this year!

Mission Impossible

AKA - Behold the wonder of Photoshop.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to capture a good photo of two ornery, fast moving canines, at night, indoors, when one is perpetually over exposed, and the other under exposed.

Big props also go out to my fancy newish flash for allowing me to not wash-out our nerds.

Birthday Cupcakes

My mom gave me this fun cupcake tree for my birthday since I love to bake. Megan and I made a batch of chocolate cupcakes and a batch of red velvet cupcakes to fill all the spots (with a lot of extras!) They ended up being more Valentine's than birthday cupcakes, but I do like pink!

I made my best buttercream frosting yet, and we just did pink with white accents. I had a fun variety of Valentine's sprinkles from last year, so we went sprinkle crazy!

These are shaped like red lips.

Some pretty multicolored hearts:

This one is my favorite, with the heart dotting the "i." How very elementary school, but so cute!

The cupcake tree was a fun excuse to be creative with cupcakes instead of cookies. It will be fun to use if I host any parties or showers in the future. Everyone loves adorable cupcakes!

Birthday Presents

I was so excited to get my birthday presents from Mom and Dad: Woof galloping boots and matching saddle pad! Jack looks good in blue, and it's my favorite color, so I love them!


Jack is going to be ready for cross country schooling! I can't wait for spring!

Super cookies

Grrr! I can not for the life of me get these pictures to post correctly! They are horizontal on my computer but keep showing up vertical. Any tips? I am putting them up anyway because I am sick of trying since Monday (it's Thursday despite what the date above says!)

We went to a party for the Superbowl, even though we weren't really cheering for either team. Everyone ended up wanting the Cardinals to win after awhile, but I guess we picked the wrong team!

I whipped up some cookies to celebrate. Who knew I would ever have a good reason to use these cookie cutters?

Maybe not the most accurate helmets, but they still look cute, and the colors turned out exactly as I hoped! I used buttercream instead of royal icing because it was faster and I can't find my book with the icing recipe!


They were sooooo good and everyone ate way more cookies than we should have eaten. It was fun hanging out with friends and I actually enjoyed watching the game since there was a lot of action!